Travel Thoughts and Travel Guides

Death March Km 00 Marker and Japan-Philippine Friendship Tower in Bagac, Bataan

After our hitch-hiking adventure to climb Mount Samat and reach the Dambana ng Kagitingan our next plan was to head to Bagac, Bataan and spend the night at Stella Mariz Beach Resort. I just knew the general location of the resort but I did not really know how to get there so when the bus arrived at the town of Bagac we asked a tricycle driver to take us to the resort. He said the price on how much a trip would cost and even told us that we will be passing by the Death March Km 00 Marker and the Japan-Philippine Friendship Tower! I knew the existence of both spots because of the map that I use and I was really curious on how they would look personally.

After having our kakanin lunch at a karinderya inside Bagac we rode the tricycle and the first stop is a figure of a bayonet plunged to the ground with a helmet on its top. I did not know what this symbol is called nor the reason why the symbol was built. I tried looking for the signages that explains what it symbolizes, unfortunately, I did not find one.

Not more than 30 meters away lies the Kilometer 00 Death March Marker in Bagac, Bataan. It’s a reminder of the gruesome death march that happened during World War II but looking at it now it was not maintained well. It’s on a fork on the road where I noticed more the directional signs to the resorts than the marker itself.

Next stop is the Japan-Philippine Friendship Tower which was located near the National Highway. It’s a symbol that Japan and the Philippines after the war is now going toward a peaceful relationship. And I had a hard time finding out the reason because the signage on why the tower was built is on the farther side of the compound from the entrance.

From afar, it just looks like an ordinary tower with a bell in the bottom but when you get to the bottom of the tower it shows symmetry. Luckily we were there around 1:50 PM so looking at the top from below was not as bad as looking at it during lunch time.

Though looking at it from the bottom is the best, it also shows the worst of the tower as you can now see the inside of the bell with lots of vandalism. Is this a symbol that the next generation doesn’t really care what happened before?

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